Why Is Trailer GVWR Higher Than Combined Capacity of its Axles

Updated 12/17/2025 | Published 05/31/2018

Question:

Im looking at an 18ft tandem axle car trailer with 3500 lb axles with a GVW of 8000 lb. How can the GVW be higher than the sum of the axles? Are they calculating the tongue weight into the GVW? Im carrying a 5000 lb Jeep and I want to make sure I have enough of a saftey margin so Ive been looking at trailers with 5200 lb axles but this trailer might work. Looking for a little advice.

asked by: Shannon C

Expert Reply:

You are exactly right when you mentioned the tongue weight of a trailer being accounted for when determining its overall capacity. It is not uncommon for trailer manufacturers to list a trailer's GVWR to be a bit higher than the combined capacity of its axles. This is because a portion of the loaded weight will be tongue weight, which will be applied to the tow vehicle and won't be directly on the trailer axles.

A trailer's tongue weight is typically around 10 to 15 percent of its total weight. When using the trailer's 8,000 pound GVW that you mentioned, this comes out to around 800 to 1,200 pounds. This falls right in line with the trailer's listed GVW being 1,000 pounds higher than the combined capacity of its two 3,500 pound axles.

As long as you remain below the trailer's listed capacity when hauling your Jeep or other vehicles, you should not have any issues with overloading the trailer.

expert reply by: Chris R

Kenneth

12/17/2025

I have a Red Dale trailer, bumper pull, 1972, 24 feet long. The axle ratings are: rear 1585, front 1435. The GVWR is 5400. The axles are drop axles, 4 or 5 inch drop. The axle tubes are about 2 3/4 inches diameter. Do you suppose they gave such a low rating to the axles because the tires had that kind of limit, or what do you think? The rims are 5 x 15, and four lug, although not your typical 4 lug - it's a bigger bolt circle. Thank you!